Kamishiro sat quietly, spacing out while Princess Tsunade furiously tackled her paperwork.
Casualty statistics, supply damage assessments, upcoming operational directives, and preparations to receive the Third Hokage—as the supreme commander, she had to personally review it all.
After a long wait, Tsunade finally finished clearing her desk.
"Kamishiro, are your injuries fully healed?"
"Thank you for your concern, Lady Tsunade. I feel completely fine." He flashed her a smile and swung his arm in a wide circle to prove his mobility wasn't impaired.
"Of course you're fine," Tsunade replied coldly. "I personally... directed the other medical ninja to treat your wounds."
Kamishiro's smile froze awkwardly. He thought he was just naturally healing fast, but it turned out he had simply received top-tier medical care. But wait, what did she mean by 'personally directed'? Did she not actually lay a hand on him?
Kamishiro obviously didn't know about Tsunade's crippling hemophobia. He had been covered head-to-toe in blood that night. It was a miracle her ancestors were watching over him and she hadn't just fainted at the sight of him, let alone "personally" touching him.
"Before Kushina left, she told me to look after you," Tsunade continued, shifting to business. "But the current situation is that the Third Hokage is arriving soon. Once he gets here, I will be handing over my command. Given your physical state, you likely won't recover in time to participate in the final battle against the Sand. Which is a shame, because your combat strength would have been incredibly useful."
Kakashi's intel had been spot-on. The Third Hokage was really coming.
Before Kamishiro could say anything, Tsunade cut him off. "Don't bother being modest. I saw everything that night clearly. If your attack hadn't completely incapacitated Shukaku, I don't know what the consequences would have been. You then managed to safely evacuate Kushina from the battlefield. It is no exaggeration to say you were the absolute MVP of that battle."
Tsunade paused, her gaze turning incredibly sharp as she stared right into his eyes. "That jutsu you used... I've never seen anything like it. I am certain it's your original creation. After seeing you develop the Chidori earlier, I admit your talent for jutsu creation doesn't surprise me anymore. But I only have one question: can you fire off an attack of that caliber whenever you want?"
Tsunade's expression was dead serious. She had easily categorized his Railgun as a "jutsu," which made sense. In this world, any inexplicably powerful attack was just slapped with the "ninjutsu" label.
Faced with the interrogation, Kamishiro remained perfectly calm. Why? Because he had spent hours brainstorming exactly what kind of absolute bullshit—ahem, perfectly reasonable explanation—he could feed people to make them believe him.
He decisively shook his head. "Impossible."
Tsunade said nothing, her silence demanding the details.
"Ever since I started learning ninjutsu, I discovered I have an extreme physical affinity for Lightning Release. Not only can I utilize its destructive power with almost zero risk of backlash, but my body developed a unique physical trait."
"What trait?"
"I can convert my normal chakra into Lightning chakra, and then stockpile it inside my body over a long period of time..."
Generally speaking, if a ninja has a maximum chakra capacity of 100, they cannot magically produce a 101st drop. But Kamishiro was claiming that he could maintain his base 100, generate extra, convert it into lightning, and stockpile it like a battery.
He didn't explain how he stored it, banking on the fact that Tsunade wouldn't ask.
If he told this to anyone else, their first reaction would be total skepticism. It defied basic chakra theory. But Tsunade was different. Her subconscious reaction was to instantly believe him. Why? Because his bullshit lie was the exact core mechanic of her own Yin Seal and the Strength of a Hundred seal!
Sure enough, Kamishiro's next words perfectly aligned with her expectations.
"Unleashing an attack of that magnitude completely drained all the Lightning chakra I've been stockpiling since the day I became a ninja. So yes, I can technically fire that jutsu again... but I'll need to charge it for another three or four years."
It was a brilliantly constructed lie. If he admitted he could spam orbital strikes, it would be terrifying. And he wasn't worried about contradicting himself later. How many times in one lifetime was he realistically going to have to solo a Tailed Beast anyway?
Hearing this, Tsunade felt a mix of pity and profound relief. If a kid his age could casually beat up Tailed Beasts on a whim, all the decades she had spent training would feel like a joke.
"Furthermore, for some reason, the Lightning chakra I store long-term becomes completely undetectable to sensory ninja once it's released. I can't really explain the mutation it undergoes." Kamishiro held out his right hand, a faint arc of electricity dancing between his thumb and middle finger. If a sensory ninja were standing right next to him, they wouldn't feel a single ripple of chakra.
This wasn't a huge issue to cover up. To the average ninja, if it crackled and sparked, they just assumed it was Lightning Release.
Kamishiro had practically covered all his bases. But Tsunade had one last question.
"I understand all of that. But that night, I also saw you use a technique strikingly similar to the Third Kazekage's Magnet Style."
Wow, your eyesight is incredible for an old lady in the dark...
Kamishiro suppressed his intense urge to roast her and replied, "Ah, that wasn't Magnet Style. It's fundamentally just another application of Lightning Release. I don't have Wind affinity, and I definitely don't have a Kekkei Genkai."
"To explain this, we have to start with the relationship between electricity and magnetism. I don't know the exact chakra mechanics behind Magnet Style, but at its core, anything Magnet Style can do, a strong enough electrical current can replicate. There is a physical phenomenon called electromagnetic induction..."
And with that, Kamishiro fully activated his inner straight-A student, physics-expert persona. Completely ignoring whether a woman of Tsunade's age could even comprehend it, he launched into a dense, high-level lecture on electromagnetism.
The truth was, Tsunade didn't understand a single word.
They had grown up with completely different foundational education systems. If he talked about chakra natures and hand signs, she'd understand instantly. But right now, Kamishiro was talking about cutting magnetic flux lines and induction coils. To her, he was literally speaking Martian.